Former Mayor of Kiev, Ukraine: “Communism Is a Disease”

(Minghui.org) Since May, more than 20,000 criminal complaints have been filed against former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin for persecuting Falun Gong. They were submitted to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Procuratorate in China before a copy was provided to Minghui.

Ukraine, a nation once under communist rule as part of the Soviet Union, has been very supportive of this movement. “The most important thing is that the day will come when those responsible will face justice,” remarked renowned Ukrainian attorney Anna Maliar.

The Ukrainian parliament approved legislation in April, condemning the communist government that ruled between 1917 and 1991 as a criminal regime. President Poroshenko signed it into law on May 15, banning communist propaganda, symbols, and souvenirs. The prohibited items also include place names, monuments, and plaques glorifying Soviet heroes, Soviet flags, and communist slogans.

The law also applies to the Nazi regime, which occupied and controlled Ukraine during World War II.

At a forum held by the Tuidang (Quitting the CCP) Center in Kiev on June 11, former Kiev mayor Mosiyuk Oleksandr commented, “Communism is a disease.” The forum focused on the increasing number of Chinese who have quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations, which had reached 200 million as of April 2015.

“More than 10 million Ukrainians died because of communism. In China that number has reached 80 million,” said Oleksandr. “We must end communism and end everything related to it.”

Currently working as an adviser to members of parliament, Oleksandr said that this trend was inevitable but that many countries needed to support it.

Lech Walesa, former Polish president and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, sent a letter to the forum to support the Tuidang movement. He wrote, in part, “I deeply believe that nothing will able to stop [this movement]. No one can stop the spirit of freedom and truth.”

Poland passed a law in March 2007 requiring individuals to declare if they had ever worked as communist security service informants.

An expert in political crimes and an advocate for the recent legislature to censure communism, Attorney Maliar agreed with Oleksandr, saying, “There are similarities between the crimes committed by the communist party in China and in Ukraine. Without communism, any nation will be stronger.

“The sooner Chinese people renounce their connection with the Party, the sooner they will gain their freedom and be able to work towards a better future,” she added.

The “Quitting the CCP” movement is closely related to the lawsuits recently being filed against Jiang. As head of the government and top CCP leader, Jiang initiated the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999. Since then, untold numbers of practitioners have been arrested, detained, subjected to brainwashing, sent to forced labor camps, tortured, and had their organs harvested. At least 3,864 of them have been confirmed dead due to torture while in custody.